Just posted this review since I get regular emails about the things! No idea what makes them so popular in the US?

I think their own R4000 IS better everywhere other than indoors and these not that much difference here. Both are wider than they need to be. And this chair is wider than my own. And longer. It rotates around the centre but how much of an advantage is that when its bigger anyway. As an indoor chair its too big, as an outdoor chair its erm.. Interesting! See my page.

Add your own comments if you have experience of this chair here and I will link to this thread from that page. Add comments even if you dont have direct experience too if you want!

These chairs look like a two wheeled uni-cycle that is mechanically stabilized by a set of wheels in front of and in back of the center wheels.

The I-bot accomplished two wheeled stability using gyros, I'm not sure Pride ever stabilized these chairs. After riding in one of them for a short time I concluded they would make me sea sick if I rode in it for long.

The chair is constructed such that the back and front wheels take weight off the center wheels reducing available traction to the drive wheels. Under the correct circumstances the front and back wheels can remove all the weight from the drive wheels leaving the user unable to move. I've talked with people who've been stuck in curb cuts and have had to be pushed out by passers by.

When accelerating the chair distributes more weight to the wheels away from the direction of travel in order to keep the chair upright. If the chair happens to be stuck, there is hardly a worse situation imaginable when attempting to free it. I've seen this situation too many times.

Pride must have had their reasons for developing the chair. To my way of thinking there are too many drawbacks to the performance of the chair for it to be practical anywhere but indoors. There are few of the hazards found out of doors and the manueverability of the chair is useful.

Pride people I've talked with are at least a little sensitive about criticism of the chairs. I get the feeling they'd rather not talk about it. If my opinion is worth anything, I'm inclined to say that anyone considering buying one of the chairs shold look at others if the chair is to see much outdoor use.

As well as my Frontier X5 I also have a Q6000, and I have to say I agree with most of what Burgerman has said about it.

The chair is really just an inside, smooth sidewalk/mall type chair. You can forget any rough stuff as it will either get high sided, or will dig itself a hole. A point in note, the driveways here do not have cutaways, instead, the gutters are of the rollover variety (see picture). My Frontier X5 rolls up and down over these gutters like they're not even there, the Q6000, on the other hand, nearly always get stuck with the drive wheels just spinning in the lowest part of the gutter with the front and rear castor wheels taking most of the chair is weight.

The STF for me is also a problem, and this chair has group 34 batteries with the lowered top plate that is supposed to give lower STF than the standard set up. The True Balance/True Comfort seating system, while well-designed, ends up having you sitting so high that you will never fit under a standard height table. I end up sitting higher with this combo in my Q6000 than I do with my Frontier X5, in fact I'm seriously thinking of dumping the entire seating system (about $4500 worth) and replacing it with Quantums basic seating system to try and give me a low enough STF.

On the positive side the forward/rear position of the seat is quite adjustable, although when delivered the seat always seems to be too far forward to my way of thinking, I've got mine set back as far as it will go in an attempt to get some of the load off the 5 inch front castors. A Point Burgerman didn't mention about the front castors on the Q6000 is that they have spring-loaded frogs leg style anchor points, so although the castors are only 5 inch, if you hit something like a curb, the front castors will spring back and tend to ride up over the curb, as long as it's not too high. Still it is not that great, a 3 inch curb is about the best it will handle, not real useful in the real world.

Oh, and I concur with Burgerman, the default programming is bloody awful, "push stick, wait for something to happen". It's not good.

You should do a full X5 review and pictures! One thing that would worry me with the X5 is build quality...Another is size/width/height. But thats for another thread/page.

How does Q6000 compare for power, and torque to the X5?Are they both 8mph? What about range (and are you light/heavy? Do you actually use the range to its extremes?)

My chair http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/images- ... r-1200.jpg (image) wouldnt notice that curb in the photo, at least as far ar I can tell. No sense of scale. But rounded 3 inch? I doubt I would slow down going either way. Its smaller in all 3 important measurements than the Q6000Z too.

I can't say that it's been a problem, although I know what you mean. The base itself seems to be quite well-made, it's the seat that make you wonder about the build quality. As an example, the footplate anchor points seem rather weak to me, and make you think that a decent whack with either bend or break them. The same can be said for the armrest anchor points, they look like if you applied too much weight to them they'd break. Having said all that, neither has happened in the six years I've had the chair.

Another is size/width/height. But thats for another thread/page.

There's no getting away from it, it is a big chair. Though having said that, I'd have to say that I've manoeuvred my chair through some fairly tight places without incident.

How does Q6000 compare for power, and torque to the X5?

It's a bit hard to say because of the crap programming on the Q6000. But I'd say, in my opinion, the X5 seems to have more power and torque even though it only has an 80 amp Dynamic power module. This could be down to half decent programming on the X5 compared to the Q6000.

Are they both 8mph? What about range (and are you light/heavy? Do you actually use the range to its extremes?)

The Q6000 has the 6.5 mph motors. It's a bit hard to say with the X5, the Australian magic mobility website lists the top speed as a bit over 6 mph, whereas if you look at the American distributors website, the top speed is listed as 7.5 mph. Personally I think it's even faster than that. Just a wet finger in the air guess, but I'd say the top speed is closer to 8 mph. I'll have to dig out my GPS one day and see if I can get some sort of valid reading. The speed difference between the American and Australian websites is interesting, and, in my opinion, has more to do with politics than programming. I think as the law stands in Australia, if a powered vehicle (includes wheelchairs) exceeds 6 mph then it can no longer be driven on the footpath's, plus, in some states it has to have vehicle registration, so the manufacturers just lie with their specs, I doubt the police are going to be out and about with their speed cameras checking the speed that wheelchair users are travelling at.

On the weight question:I haven't weighed myself for years, but at a guess I'd say I weigh between 60 and 70 KG, and am about 5'10"-5'11" tall. I've never pushed the range of the X5 to the extreme, about the farthest distance I've travelled is around 10 km without even dropping a light on the battery gauge.

My chair http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/images- ... r-1200.jpg (image) wouldnt notice that curb in the photo, at least as far ar I can tell. No sense of scale. But rounded 3 inch? I doubt I would slow down going either way.

That image was just a screen capture of out the front of my house off Google Street view. It's pissing down raining here at the moment, so I wasn't going to go out the front to take a photo of the gutter.

I think the R4000 6mph chair rear drive is the best outdoor chair for grown adults that Pride (Quantum?) make.

<Nod› yep, I agree. It seems to be one of the better chairs around at the moment.